Parisian friches: Abandonment as supplement

Abstract

In this talk I seek to place and analyse what has become known as ‘friches’ – abandoned urban spaces – in Paris as articulations of a supplementary logic that has not been fully developed in the literature about ‘abandoned’ spaces. With recourse to the work of Jacques Derrida and building from literatures about the relationship between nominally ‘empty’ and ‘occupied’ spaces, the paper positions the logic of the supplement in contrast specifically to argumentative engagements with the theme of ‘abandonment’ inspired by Neil Smith’s ‘rent gap’, Nicolai Roskamm’s engagement with ‘Dichte’ (density’) and settler-colonial modes of reasoning. Following Colin McFarlane’s work on urban assemblages, the talk asserts the rhetorical function of ‘abandoned’ spaces as seemingly requiring a supplement, something that remedies a deficiency inherent to their existence. It is as such that ‘abandoned’ spaces are actively invoked in urban planning and as such that they are subsequently considered, often irrespective of their actual acquired roles and functions. Using case studies from the French capital, the talk will illustrate the effects, uses and consequences of the supplementary logic in play in historical and contemporary urban planning ambitions and decrees.